


you can fall for pretty strangers (and the promises they hold)

by chemicalpixie



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Theater, F/F, M/M, Mild Cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 05:25:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8955805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chemicalpixie/pseuds/chemicalpixie
Summary: “eponine leans her head on his shoulder. enjolras is on the balcony now, his hand entwined with cosette's as they gaze into each other's eyes. enjolras mixes up one of his lines, and cosette leans in, her hand on his cheek, giggling quietly.“fucking hell,” grantaire mutters. “look at how pretty they are together. they deserve each other.”“they're like a couple of gods,” eponine replies. “there's no way two people so pretty could be mortal.””or; high school is rough, but having a crush on the (taken?) straight lead in the school play is rougher.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this was a secret santa present for @betweentheheavesofstorm (which is her name on both here and tumblr) and you seem like such a sweetheart and your fics are !!! so incredibly good, so i hope that you enjoy this!!  
> side note : though it isn't exactly mentioned in this, grantaire playing mercutio in the play, which i thought was personally amusing given that mercutio is generally viewed as the gay best friend in r&j  
> the title comes from the song romeo and juliet by dire straights, though i was personally listening to the killer's cover of it when writing and choosing this title

“so romeo would, were he not romeo call'd, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title. romeo, doff thy name, and for that name which is no part of thee take all myself.” eponine sits near the back of the almost-empty theater, watching cosette stand on the balcony that the set crew had just finished building and recite her lines. her hair glows _golden_ in the stage lights, and eponine can't take her eyes off her.

“you're staring,” grantaire says, tapping her on the shoulder. eponine jumps.

“what?” she says, turning around to look at grantaire. “you startled me.”

“sorry,” grantaire shrugs. “but it was getting a bit obvious exactly how gay you are for cosette. you don't want to out yourself to the entire cast and crew of the show just by how powerful your heart eyes are.”

eponine punches him lightly in the shoulder. “hey!” he protests, rubbing his shoulder lightly. “why are you still here, anyways? you're done for tonight.”

“they don't run a bus this late so cosette's dad is giving me a ride home,” eponine explains.

“oh,” grantaire says, and eponine leans her head on his shoulder. enjolras is on the balcony now, his hand entwined with cosette's as they gaze into each other's eyes. enjolras mixes up one of his lines, and cosette leans in, her hand on his cheek, giggling quietly.

“fucking _hell_ ,” grantaire mutters. “look at how pretty they are together. they deserve each other.”

“they're like a couple of _gods_ ,” eponine replies. “there's no way two people so pretty could be mortal.”

“he's apollo, and she's...oh fuck, ponine, she's your crush. you pick. i don't even like girls.”

“aphrodite,” eponine says, on her first impulse. “no. no. she's _brilliant_ , she's in my lit class, i don't think she's ever gotten less than a 92, she's athena.”

“that's fair,” grantaire replies, inclining his head.

“who's athena?” a voice asks, and eponine turns to find cosette standing in the aisle with her canvas book bag in her hands. she glances back at the stage, where the set design crew has apparently reclaimed possession of the balcony after the practice. the actors have all vacated the stage in search of areas where they are less likely to get splinters.

“oh, um,” eponine begins, her face red and her mind blank. “it was for an assignment.”

“what assignment?” cosette asks, and then, seeing the minor panic on eponine's face, adds, “i'm just worried i forgot something.”

“no, you didn't,” grantaire says. “it's for my english class, ponine was just helping me.”

“oh, okay!” cosette says, grinning brightly. “are you ready to go then?”

“yeah, i am.” eponine grabbed her things and followed cosette out to her father's car.

“hello, papa,” cosette says, climbing into the front seat and kissing him on the cheek.

“hello, mr. fauchelevent,” eponine parrots almost automatically, and he smiles at her through the rearview mirror as he listens to cosette talk about rehearsal.

“it went really well. i know all my lines, and enjolras knows his pretty well, i think, but he got some mixed up today. honestly, he's such a _cutie,_ ” cosette says, and it's at this point eponine stops listening. she doesn't have time to listen to her crush's obvious heterosexuality. instead, eponine stares out the window, the boarded-up buildings and empty beer bottles welcoming her back to her own neighborhood.

cosette's father pulls up right in front of her apartment building, and eponine gets out quickly, jumping over a puddle of dirty rainwater to avoid getting her last pair of dry boots wet.

“see you tomorrow, ep!” cosette calls cheerfully, and eponine doesn't look back at her as the front door of the apartment building slams shut. she hurries up the stairs, because, god, if gavroche hasn't managed to set the building on fire making mac and cheese, than their dad is probably home and no way does he want to know where eponine's been spending her after school hours.

she fumbles to unlock the door, but when it finally swings open, she finds azelma and the two little ones huddled together on the couch watching reruns of mr. rogers. well, the little ones are watching, anyway. azelma is reading a fashion magazine. eponine used to do that at her age, too, but her interest was more about the pretty girls in the magazine than the actual fashion involved. the youngest one is already half-asleep (mr. roger's soothing voice always puts him to sleep, it makes things easier on nights he doesn't want to go to bed). gavroche stands on a plum-colored stool that looks somehow fundamentally unsturdy as he stirs the mac and cheese. nothing, it seems, is on fire. eponine ruffles azlema's hair and before heading over and pulling gavroche off the stool and taking over the mac and cheese herself. her phone buzzes in her back pocket, and she drops her school papers all over the floor reaching for it.

“ _shit,_ ” eponine curses quietly.

“watch your language,” gavroche says, grinning up at her as he helps her pick up her things.

“you're twelve, you can't tell me what to do,” eponine says playfully. gavroche sticks his tongue out at her and eponine smiles, before remembering why she managed to drop everything all over the floor. she stands back up, and checks the mac and cheese again before grabbing her phone out of her back pocket and checking it. it turns out someone has started a group message ( _god_ , how she hates group messages) with grantaire, cosette and someone else. the someone else, it seems, has started the message.

??? : so, do you guys wanna meet tomorrow at the cafe? to talk about the play?

cosette <3 <3 : yea sure!! 

eponine considers changing cosette's name to athena, but then remembers the mac and cheese and spends her time finishing that instead.

“azelma!” she calls, mostly to get mr. rogers off so her brother will actually wake up. “go get some bowls, or something.” eponine gestures lightly with the pot of mac and cheese in her hand. azelma shoves her brothers off her and gets up to get the plastic bowls from the hallway cupboard. she steps on the remote on the way and the channel changes to something that is either a very bad romance movie or porn, and eponine shoves the pot on the counter and lunges for the remote to change the channel to literally anything else (because, _honestly_ , who knows what their dad has paid for) and manages to change the channel before any major mental scarring occurs. azelma comes back with the bowls and eponine serves out mac and cheese as equally as she can. gavroche immediately launches into a story about his adventures during recess with his mouth entirely full, and eponine can't be bothered telling him to stop, so she just checks her phone instead.

that one asshole : i have literally nothing better to do enjolras

that one asshole : so why not

??? : great, see you then!!

cosette <3 <3 : what about you, eponine? are you free?

eponine quickly changes ???'s name to “r's apollo” and then says 

eponine : yeah, sure, why not

eponine : what time

r's apollo : noon sound good?

cosette <3 <3 : sure!!

eponine : fine with me

she switches her phone off then, if only because gavroche looks ready to kill a man over the last apple and the baby's going to cry if gavroche gets something and he doesn't, so she tosses her phone over by her book bag and grabs a knife to cut it up (because sharing is _important_ , kids). eventually, the apple has been sliced, the children have been corralled into bed, and for once, she's pretty sure half of them are asleep, so she falls into bed herself and then she could swear it's only been like two seconds since she closed her eyes but the sun is shining so she opens her eyes and checks her phone and it turns out it's like eleven-thirty.

“shit,” she mutters, getting out of bed and throwing a shirt on that isn't the shirt she wore yesterday and some jeans that look remotely clean. she throws her hair up in a messy bun and runs out the door, terrified of being late.

as it turns out, she arrives at the cafe five minutes early. grantaire waves her over to a table in the back. enjolras and cosette are already there.

“so, now that ponine's here, what about the play did you want to talk about?” grantaire asks.

“um. our characters? they need development, and um, stuff,” cosette says, almost blushing.

eponine feels an irrational need to raise her hand, but suppresses it, and says, “um, i don't have a character. i just do lighting. can i go?”

cosette reaches across the table and grabs eponine's wrist. “no, you can't go! this was supposed to be a double date!”

grantaire stares at enjolras for a moment before recovering. “enjolras, bro,” he says. “look, i love you, but if you want me and ponine to double date with you and cosette, i honestly will deck you.”

“no!” enjolras says. “wait. you think i'm dating cosette?”

“um, duh,” grantaire replies. “have you seen the way the two of you hang onto each other? hell, yesterday during rehearsal she was touching your face and laughing, man.”  
cosette sighs in frustration. “i'm just affectionate. i'm like that with everyone.”

“you're like that with _marius,_ ” eponine says, and even she can tell there's a little bitterness in her voice. it isn't her fault they have the same first period and she has to watch them all tangled up in each other for an hour every morning.

“we _broke up!_ ” cosette says back, her voice rising like she wants to yell, but has stopped herself.

“i know,” grantaire says. “that's why everyone with any amount of sense thought you were dating enjolras.” he's surprisingly calm, considering how much everyone around him has considered yelling. “so, what?” grantaire continues, “you want to double date with eponine? because, wow, i didn't think she was your type.”

“she's not,” enjolras snaps harshly. he turns to eponine, and adds, “no offense, eponine.”

“none taken,” eponine says cordially. because, really, she's more confused than anything else at this point.

“then if cosette isn't your type, and eponine isn't, who is?”

“well, my type is generally guys, for one,” enjolras says, and grantaire is speechless. it's incredibly hard to get him to a place where he doesn't have some kind of witty comeback (eponine should know, she's been trying for _years_ to get the last word in their arguments).

“so, this double date was meant to be me and cosette and you and grantaire?” eponine asks carefully.

“yes,” cosette says, slipping her hand into eponine's. “enjolras was supposed to ask grantaire out yesterday in the group chat, but he didn't because he's a huge wuss.” cosette elbows enjolras with a fond smile.

“so, i guess, just to make it official, do you, eponine, want to go on a date with me?” cosette asks, grinning brightly.

“yes, yes, of course i do,” eponine says, not even bothering to hind the blush that's spreading across her face. “just maybe not a double date with those two, because something tells me they'll argue about as much as they make out and that just sounds exhausting.”

cosette laughs, and eponine could swear it's the most beautiful thing she's ever heard. “don't look now,” she says, “but i think they've already started on the making out part of that prediction.”

eponine giggles ( _god_ , she sounds like such a girl, she didn't know she could giggle like that, grantaire's going to tease her about it endlessly if he ever stops kissing enjolras long enough to breathe) and then cosette leans across the table and kisses her, and, _jesus christ_ , this might just be the best day of eponine's life.


End file.
